E148: Did Facebook just change direction?

What is Facebook’s plan for sport? The social media giant chose not to bid for live NFL rights in the US and recently announced they were backing away from their existing UEFA Champions League and La Liga agreements in Latin America and India, respectively.A recent statement, via Sportico, has made waves: “the reality is that traditional media rights deals like these aren’t compatible with our current video business model. We also don’t think they’ll create the most sustainable value for the industry moving forward.”So what does this phrase mean for sports rights holders? Does it mark a new strategic direction in Facebook’s relationship with sport?We talk to Peter Hutton, Facebook’s global sport partnerships director about what rights holder can expect from Instagram, WhatsApp, Oculus and Facebook in the coming months and years.The conversation that strays in to other areas too, and we talk about private equity’s role in media rights negotiations, whether VR is ever going to be a thing, what social media has done to our definition of football fans and the cultural and philosophical differences that separate the sports business and Silicon Valley.If you like the Unofficial Partner podcasts, you’ll really like our weekly newsletter, which is read by thousands of people across the global sports business, and is where we talk about the topics and themes that arise from our podcast conversations.We can send it direct to your inbox every Thursday, all you have to do is sign up via unofficialpartner.com, where you’ll also find our back catalogue of podcasts.Links here to Sportico article and previous Facebook podcast referenced in the show.[Facebook: ‘The Live Sports Broadcast Business Model Needs to Evolve’ – Sportico.com]Unofficial Partner podcast #13 with Peter Hutton [PODCAST | Unofficial Partner - Sports Business Podcast]Unofficial Partner is the leading podcast for the business of sport. A mix of entertaining and thought provoking conversations with a who's who of the global industry. To join our community of listeners, sign up to the weekly UP Newsletter and follow us on Twitter and TikTok at @UnofficialPartnerWe publish two podcasts each week, on Tuesday and Friday. These are deep conversations with smart people from inside and outside sport. Our entire back catalogue of 500 sports business conversations are available free of charge here. Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify and every podcast app. If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series and live events, you can reach us via the website.